Cottage Foundation

Design Sketch

In October 2002, I bought a new 2003 VW Turbo S Beetle. 6-speed. Fast. Loved it. In June 2009, we bought our lot where we now have our new home. The idea was to be able to walk more and be less car-dependent. In June 2015, we moved into our new home. From day one, we decided we would see […]

One year ago today, we moved into our new home. It has been an amazing year! We have not only met virtually all of our neighbors, we’ve become good friends. We’ve gone to plays, concerts and had dinner together. We had a Memorial Day Potluck that was a blast with 22 friends from the ‘hood. Brenda and I have […]

[UPDATED 29 April 2016] I haven’t posted for a while. We’ve been enjoying the neighborhood and our neighbors and settling in. But we’ve had a couple of pieces of “news” that I wanted to update you all on. First, our LEED certification is OFFICIALLY complete (finally). Looks like the main house needed 86 points to achieve Platinum (the highest rating) […]

The initial cost of a home is far from the total, real cost. As I mentioned in my previous post, the long-term life-cycle costs account for 85% of the monetary cost of a home; only 15% is that initial cost. A significant portion of that 85% is maintenance and repairs. I am actually amazed at the number of builders and […]

There are many aspects of a home that are important. I want to highlight two of them in my next two posts: Physical size of the home and the durability of the materials. I’ll talk about size in this post and touch on durability in my next post. As you can see from the chart, in the last 30 years, […]

We’ve been in our home 4 months now (coming up on 5, actually). Time sure flies. As of the end of October, we have been using an average of about 295 kWh of electricity per month (remember we are 100% electric, no gas). And we have built up an 1,800 kWh CREDIT going into the winter. We may just make […]

We have moved in. We have settled in. Pictures are hung on the walls. Landscaping is complete. Fence is in. Electric bill is still a negative dollar amount. Have not driven my car to work in almost four months. Walking a lot. Biking a lot. Loving it.

We are down to three days before we move in! Final coat is on the wood floors, just a few minor detail things to do, landscaping is in, cottage is rented, and both solar systems combined are churning out about 63 kW a day. Our 34th anniversary was today and tomorrow is Father’s Day. Life is very very good. Cleaners […]

We are in the home stretch on our new home. I haven’t posted for a while because there haven’t been a lot of visible changes and this stage has been very time consuming with the last details. Inspections are down to final electrical, final mechanical, final plumbing and final building. Insulation is complete. Exterior stone is almost done (just […]

15th AVENUE COTTAGE 351 West 15th Avenue Available July 1, 2015 (UPDATE: The cottage has been rented) Award-Winning Architect-Designed, Brand New Construction Bright and Beautiful Craftsman Style home Live near the center of downtown Eugene, just a short walk or bike ride to the Farmer’s Market, Saturday Market, 5th Street Public Market, Restaurants, the Library, Banks, Churches, the University of […]